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Tag Archives: CMP

Since the 19th October 111 union members and their families have been without work and wages while their bosses have demanded they accept 20% pay cuts and changes in their hours – the small community of Rangitikei (Near Palmerston North) are effectively being starved out.

As locked out worker Steve McGinity told the Manawatu Standard: “We’re not just doing this for our kids, we’re doing it for all meat workers and for all kiwis who are facing attacks on their work rights.”

Among numerous unsung hero’s, the unions, workers activist groups such as Beyond Resistance and Occupy’s (including our very own Occupy Otautahi) have supplied food, support at the picket line and donated much needed funds. See the article below for details on recent actions in our city.

Saturday 3rd December promises to be an important date for the locked out Canterbury Meat Packer workers. ANZCO, which owns and operates CMP, happens to supply it’s meat patties to a well known brand of fast food restaurants. McDonald’s NZ is CMP’s biggest contract and with CMP rejecting the workers latest offer of a 10% pay cut and petitions, lobbying and press releases getting us nowhere, it’s now time to take to the streets.

On Saturday pickets are taking place across the country, a call out by CTU coordinator Simon Oosterman has so far confirmed 16 stores nationwide – from Invercargill all the way to Whangarei – that will be hit from 11am onwards.

Here in Christchurch, Riccarton McDonald’s will be our store of choice. Located on the corner of Riccarton Rd and Matipo, we’ll kick off from 11am. For those keen to join a march to the store meet at South Hagley Park, next to the hospital at 10.00am. The march will head up through Riccarton Rd where we hope to encourage passers by to join us and spread the word of the CMP lockout.

The aim of the picket is to raise awareness, ask people to choose somewhere else for their lunch, gather some much needed funds and get some media attention on this desperate story. You can help by sharing this post, telling your mates and getting yourself to this important day of action.

We’ll see you there!

CMP ANZCO Solidarity Picket – 11.00am, Saturday 3rd December,

Riccarton Rd Mcdonalds (corner of Matipo and Riccarton Rd),

Pre event march – 10.00am, Saturday 3rd Decmber,

South Hagley Park, Opposite Hospital – to – Riccarton Rd McDonald’s

If you’re based outside of Otautahi/Christchurch and want to find out where your local picket is simply click on this facebook event page. If your outside of Aotearoa, help by spreading this story as far and as wide as you can, the CMP crew need everything we can muster.

News of this event and the ongoing story will continue to flow from the O.S.N blog.

It’s been all go, O.S.N can’t take all the credit, but many of the team are directly involved with the Christchurch Otautahi Occupy movement which has been leading the way.

The distinction between the two group’s rest firmly with class and our analysis of it. While Occupy claims to be for the 99% O.S.N recognise that within our community there are far more snakes, vipers and enemies of the working class than an arbitrary 1%. However the Occupy movement is offering a space for people completely new to direct action to explore their idea’s and take them closer to their natural conclusions. It is also allowing those in the previous year, who have begun to push their comfort zones, to take more of a lead role within the group.

The results of this relationship speak for themselves:

Last Saturday, November 5th, Westmeat on Blenheim Rd received the wrath of a rowdy picket who were there to highlight the battle that is being ignored by the mainstream media. Canterbury Meat Packers have been locked out for almost 3 weeks. The 111 workers and their families are being starved out unless they agree to a 20-30% pay cut; Occupy Christcurch and members of Otautahi Solidarity Network brought some much needed heat to the businesses supplied by this company.

The day before saw a small team pace the newly opened Cashel Mall. Despite a difficult crowd we came across some good folk, union delegates that hadn’t heard of the CMP issue, old activists who were grateful to see some young blood picking up the baton and to top it off a very irate Operations Manager. After telling a number of the crew he would call the police, he was told to ‘go ahead’, his bluff was roused and he stormed off with his beefed up security guard in tow. Never doubt your right to protest! We raised some attention on the situation and gathered some much needed funds for our comrades in the North.

Monday 7th November we attended a Rally in the city to condemn the demolition that is taking place in the CBD. The Heritage Trust had gathered a number of politicians and councillors to remind us of how bad it all was and that the ballot box will bring a halt to the wrecking ball. A few of us picked up on the growing sense of frustration among the crowed. Before long 100 of us split from the rally to take a message to the CERA head office, before we knew it we were in the lobby of the HSBC building shouting to bring the demolition to an end and to OCCUPY! Within minutes 30 of us were on the second floor demanding answers. It was an exciting crowd of young and old, a cross section of our community, willing to take a stand and bend the rules to get the message across.

As a result of this action, organisers of recent public rallies in the Red Zones approached members of O.S.N and Occupy – we are now in touch with them, hoping to help coordinate the biggest rally the city has seen since the initial September quake. The 19th November promises to be a massive day (more news expected shortly)
This is what it’s all about, through direct action, networking suddenly becomes a very real and urgent necessity. Various groups and individuals begin to realise there is more in common than not. Otautahi is promising to be an incredibly exciting and dynamic city to be.

Wanna keep in touch? A discussion email group has been created and we invite you to join us on it!

Simply email otautahisolidaritynetwork@gmail.com with the title “sign up” and we’ll make it happen.

We hope to have our next O.S.N meeting time and date sussed soon – keep your eyes and ears peeled 🙂